Illusions
by Tink484
Summary: Things are not all as they seem in the Tsukino household.
1. Backstory

Sailor Moon is property of its respective owners. I only own some mangas, a t-shirt, and a book bag, I think.

Teaser: Not all is what it seems at the Tsukino household.

Title: Illusions  
Author: Tink484  
Rated: R (for violence and language present in later chapters)

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My name is Tsukino Usagi. Well, at least on Earth it is.

You see, dear readers, a year and a half ago I was accosted by this crazed talking cat; yes, folks, I said: 'talking.' Anyway, this cat, (who sounded eerily like a British professor I once had,) was branded with this golden crescent moon on her forehead. At the time I thought it was the owner's sadistic way of i.d.-ing his or her cat. Boy was I wrong. This cat, who called herself Luna [do you see my line of thinking with the branding?] tells me that I, one Tsukino Usagi, am the world's savior against this "Dark Kingdom," and that included in the package was a mission to find mystical ginzushou and its destined wielder: the Moon Princess. Me, whose favorite occupations at the time were: sleeping, eating, playing Sailor V at the arcade, shopping and did I mention sleep? You know normal teenager stuff. I mean, for Selene's sake, I was only a freshman in High School! I couldn't save the world; I barely had enough concentration to do my homework and even then I was a huge procrastinator. So, of course, I laughed in her face.

And then the youma attacked, and something, a will to fight it, took over. And so, with Luna supplying a nifty transformation brooch and spell to activate it, I transformed into the pretty-suited Senshi Sailormoon! Hey, don't look at me; I didn't have any say in the title, if I did I would have thought of something much cooler.

Anyway so I'm fighting this monster and things are totally looking bleak for the rookie here, when this guy in a tuxedo suit, looking for all the world as if he stepped out of an Armani ad, [I mean this guy was H-O-T-T: HOT!] throws these razor-sharp red roses at the monster to buy enough time to throw a few lame words of encouragement in my direction. And oddly enough; they worked. Though to be honest, the guy could have said "bibbity, bobbity, boo," and achieved the same result as I would have done anything to make a good impression on him.

So I did my thing; a flashy number leading up to my main attack: a flying discuss-type thing. [Lame, I know but I can only work with what I have here.] And to my utter amazement, it destroyed the monster. After a little victory dance, I turned to thank my tux-clad hero only to find he was gone. But, don't worry dear readers! I found my hero, who called himself Tuxedo Kamen, was to repeat this routine at every following battle. And guess what, he's after the crystal and princess, too! Something about her being his long lost love, or something like that. All I can say is that she is one lucky girl. But give up all hope on us working together to find them; both he and Luna made it perfectly clear that it was not an option. Come on you guys haven't you ever heard of teamwork?

To top off the awesome life-altering changes [read: could this get any worse?] this (gorgeous) obnoxious upperclassman from the super elite Azabu High, Chiba Mamoru, enters my life; teasing me about anything and everything under the sun. Oh, and even kindly bestowed upon me a new moniker: Ondago Atama. I'll have you know that this hair style is a family tradition, so lay off will ya?

So things continued in this vein for few weeks; me, battling these freak show escapees sent by the evil General Jadeite by night; [Selene, you should see some of these things. Horrendous, I tell ya!] by day racing to school because I overslept, earning myself detention and getting teased by Mamoru, who I had since dubbed: Mamoru-baka. There were some bright spots, though. I received the Luna Pen, a magical device that allowed me to change into anyone I wanted, unfortunately Luna only let me use it for Senshi business. And I made a new friend at school, Mizuno Ami, genius extraordinaire as well as a fellow senshi: Sailormercury. We were two peas in a pod, Mercury using her intelligence and power of over ice to confuse and outwit the youma and me using my (klutziness) grace and flying discuss (along with a few close-call saves from my hero in the tux) to defeat it.

Yep, quite a pair.

Hino Rei, a Shinto priestess, became the next to don the mantle of a Sailor senshi: Sailormars, with the power over fire (and a temper to match.) Together we triple-teamed Jadeite into oblivion; go, us! We saved the world! Too bad it didn't last long…another general was sent our way, this one called Nephrite, [I swear their mothers were drooling over jewelry when they christened these guys!] and he too, wanted to join the hunt for the ginzushou in the name of Queen Beryl and her Dark Kingdom. If he had a hat, I think had just tossed it.

As his hunt heated up, and the battles increased, my grades quickly began to nose-dive—not that they had far to go to begin with—knocked out by the double whammy of fighting off Nephrite's latest attempt to find the crystal and the huge necessity for sleep as my attacks zapped my energy to the point that, if given a chance, I would literally sleep for a week. That is, if these dreams about some guy calling out to me--at least I think it's me, as he calls me 'Serenity'--would let me.

Never missing a beat, shortly thereafter Mamoru increased his teasing as my failing grades apparently led credence to his dubbing me Ondago; only now Rei picked up on the nick-name. Pyro, sweetie, only Mamo-chan is allowed to call me that! [Uh…did I just say that?] Needless to say Rei and I tended to butt heads a bit because of it, usually ending in the oh, so mature raspberry war. Just when I thought no one was in my corner (Ami usually abstained from getting involved in the arguments and I'm not even going to talk about Luna!) Kino Makoto, soon to be known as the lightning striking Sailorjupiter, muscled her way in to get my back.

By this time we've moved on to the gender-bending General Zoisite. One never knows what it's going to show up as, man or woman; though he/she always uses these awful pink petals as a means of distraction and was the only one of the generals to use a form of their name as a spell to attack. [Just like those cutesy anime characters my little brother, Shingo, likes to watch "Zoi!" "Zoi!".]

Zoisite put oil on the fire that was the search for the crystal (and our search for the princess,) and to aid in our quest to find it before Zoisite and Tuxedo Kamen, who Luna still maintained was an enemy, [I firmly held my ground that he was not.] I was given a new weapon: a crescent moon wand. This thing blew my flying discuss attack away! It was beautiful! Though, it did have its downside as it drained more energy than anything I've used before. In fact, after fainting at the end of a particular draining battle, I found myself in the strangest and least likely of places: Chiba Mamoru's apartment. And how did I end up there? Simple: Tuxedo Kamen brought me there.

The question was really why?

That one was a little harder for me to wrap my head around—Tuxedo Kamen was Chiba Mamoru. Well, that killed two birds with one stone: my crush of a super-hero and the not so obnoxious Mamoru-baka were one in the same. Oh, someone up there really did like me. But then, there was the fact that if he brought me there, he knew who I was…Oh, crap.

No worries though, as it seemed my faith in my caped hero was not misplaced; he would keep my secret. Now, if I could just get around the awkwardness of being attracted to him and not being able to admit it.

Mamoru aside, Zoisite ruthlessly continued to search for the ginzushou; tracking every lead like a bloodhound, he/she even spelled the whole of Tokyo into looking for the crystal by taking advantage of our addiction to the boob-tube, by encrypting videos with hidden messages. The nerve! Yet, it was this venture that led to the appearance of a fifth senshi: Sailorvenus, otherwise known as the idol and crime fighter, Sailor V; and her grand entrance onto the scene: toasting Zoisite.

Oh, yeah, it was cool.

And what was even cooler—for about two seconds—was that the girl was also apparently our long searched for Princess, or so said her guardian cat, Artemis. The little white ball of fur drops onto the scene and acts like he's in charge: even Luna stepped aside for him, but he's the princess's guardian; so he got some slack. But it only goes so far when he almost seemed to demand by association the reverence the other girls were bestowing upon the princess. Though the princess herself burst that bubble, by appointing Luna chief advisor; the crestfallen look on his face was enough to keep me laughing for hours.

So, now that the princess is found, one would think that Ginzushou would also be, you know, 'cause she's its keeper and all. Yeah, no dice there.

The princess, her appellation on Earth was Aino Minako, by the way, was dodging all questions about it. It was about this time where I got the feeling that things weren't exactly kosher around here, if you know what I'm saying. I mean, we were all searching for this princess: The senshi, the Dark Kingdom, and Tuxedo Mask (remember Tuxie claimed that he was in love with her, right?) but Tuxedo Mask wouldn't get within a mile of her and the Dark Kingdom didn't launch the offensive against her to get the crystal. Something just didn't add up. Now, don't get me wrong, I didn't think that Minako was evil, no she was definitely a good guy; I just got the feeling that her being the princess wasn't an exact fit: like a puzzle where the only piece left is either too small or too big: no matter which way you turn it, it can't complete the puzzle.

To add more confusion to the mix, the dreams were becoming more frequent, as was the urgency in his—I had called back to him 'Endymion' once, was that his name?--voice, and my attraction to Mamoru was growing, no matter how much I tried to stop it, I had to admit: I loved him. Now, unrequited love might be difficult to handle since I knew he thought he was meant to be with the princess, but shortly after he found out about me being Sailormoon, something, everything about the way he acted around me changed: he stopped teasing me, he almost seemed to become distant, but the way he looked at me…let's just say one wasn't supposed to look at a girl the way Mamoru looked at me when one's in love with another. 'Difficult'? It was pure torture!

Other than that, things were quiet for a week or two; no attacks, no brainwashing video tapes, nothing. It was the calm before the storm, and what a storm it was.

One night, in the middle of a senshi meeting, everything goes black. There was not a light to be seen in the entire city of Tokyo, save one: on the top of Tokyo tower. Guessing that it wasn't the Bat Signal, we figured it must be a trap; but we're the heroes of the city, so we go anyway. A new general awaited us there: Kunzite, apparently the most powerful of Beryl's Generals. So we threw our attacks, spells that fizzed out against Kunzite and his force field that seemed strengthened by the attacks rather than harmed by them. Once we had exhausted our catalogue of spells and the situation looked like it might get worse, I took steps to get the princess and my senshi out of harm's way—I used my wand against them, moving them a safe distance from the fight. It was right before they were completely out of earshot that I heard Sailorvenus order: "Protect Sailormoon, protect the princess!"

With no time to think on that comment, I turned back to Kunzite just in time to see an attack aimed in my direction. I had braced for the worst, expecting to wake up at St. Peter's feet, but it never came. Milliseconds before the blast hit me; Tuxedo Mask stepped in front of me: and took the deadly blow in my stead.

And that was when my world fell apart. Remember that missing puzzle piece? With Sailorvenus's words and Mamoru's sacrifice, it fell into place; and a lifetime of memories fell with it. As Mamoru, no, Endymion, lay at my feet dying one thought ran through my mind like a mantra: Not again.

I couldn't tell you what happened next, but my senshi later told me that I recalled a brief version of myself and Endymion's tale of star-crossed lovers, our own version of Romeo and Juliet, and in the process of riding an emotional power boost, formed the Ginzushou from a simple tear drop. The Senshi also told me of the amazing power it emitted and the newspapers would come to of the miracles that were apparently performed by its manifestation. And somewhere in the confusion: I lost my Endymion.

I was left alone.

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Alright. This was primarily backstory, as will be the next chapter (and possibly the next) to the main plot that takes the place of Sailor Moon R. Read, review and all that jazz! Thanks!


	2. Chapter 1

This story will primarily be written in third person, with first person interludes from the various characters. I know, I'm weird like that. Yet, there are so many emotions that are better conveyed from the person themself, rather than an omni-present narrarator.

So if you don't like it, you don't have to read it.

I don't own Sailor Moon.

-  
Drained from the events of that night, my body went into a state of triage as my body tried to chart its recovery: mentally, spiritually and physically. I was caught in a state of limbo in between fog and an all encompassing black, with moments of lucidity in between the two. It was in these moments in which I learned exactly how my prince was stolen from me as it returned to me through bits and pieces. I watched from a distance as in the blinding light that shot from my crystal, no one--not even myself as crystal held me in its power--saw Kunzite steal my beloved from my arms. Each time, I called out, cried, and screamed any and all of his appellations. To Kunzite, pleading him to stop. For myself to see. For my senshi to intervene. But to no avail. Every dream ended the same: with me, helpless to stop Kunzite as he disappeared with my prince into a black portal destined for the Dark Kingdom.

---

Kunzite stood in the middle of the cavernous room that held the coffins of his three brothers-in-arms and the power bed that he was using to try and heal his liege, Prince Endymion.

With the appearance of the Silver Imperium Crystal, his memories, stolen from him and his brothers by the evil Queen Beryl, who had once again tricked them into her service. Bile rose in his throat as he thought of every move he had made in her name, all the innocents that were hurt, and the pain that his love Sailorvenus, his prince and the Moon Princess went through to stop him.

He didn't know why he thought it would be better for his prince if he brought him back here, rather than with the senshi. Maybe it was because death had her scythe at his throat, ready to finish him off; and that with stealing him away to the Negaverse, he might be able to fix the damage that his attack had done and begin to redeem himself.

It was the worst thing that he could have done to his prince.

As soon as Beryl sensed his prescence within her domain, the evil hag ordered Kunzite to start feeding him with dark energy; hoping to bend his mind to her will and make it so that she would finally have what she always desired: Endymion, ruling at her side. Kunzite managed to forestall it, saying that the prince was too physically weak for his body to handle all the power it would take for him to become hers. At first he didn't think she would believe him, and the few moments that it took her to contemplate her decision, were some of the most terrifying moments of his life. But in the end, she relented, buying him a few precious hours time to think on a plan to get his prince and himself out.

"Kunzite." Beryl's oily voice sounded in his head, it slithered around his mind, forcing it to open to her. "How is my little prince fairing?"

"He is still weak, my queen." He sent back to her; using the title left a bad taste her mouth and he spat, as if it would rid him of the evil it invoked."It may be days until he is strong enough to begin the process."

Kunzite could almost guess Beryl's thoughts: the instant gratification or the loyal, lasting soldier. The former giving her the ability to play with her toy immeadiately, but also run the risk of killing him; or the latter: to have him completely, or even nearly healed before he became hers and would have his undying devotion for all eternity. Beryl had always been a patient woman, it served her well in the past as she gathered her forces for war against the Alliance and its Lunar hegemon, and it would serve her well now. She had waited for centuries for Endymion, a few more days wouldn't hurt. She once again allowed Kunzite to continue with his work, but she would monitor the prince's progress closely, and when she deemed he was fit, the conversion would begin.

For Kunzite, the good came with the bad: once Beryl felt that Endymion was able, the rest would be swift. He prayed to Mother Gaia that she would see them through this, that she would give him the chance to redeem himself. Even if it meant his life.

---

Sailorvenus stared at the form of a girl laying in the twin bed in the corner of of the Makoto's one room apartment. Her sister senshi and friend in this time, and her princess and blood in the last: not that she really distinguished the end of one and the beginning of the other.

Her memories had returned around the same time that Usagi, in Tokyo, had become Sailormoon: giving the Venusian the ability to return to her role as double to the Moon Princess. She was already the undercover crime fighter Sailor V, battling crime on the English streets; but with the return of her memories she became so much more. She was Princess Esther of Venus, Sailorvenus, Supreme Commander of the Solar Senshi and protector to Princess Serenity, the future High Queen.

In the past, however, she didn't have to hide under the guise of a weak Terran teenager.

The transition from Aino Minako to Sailorvenus was a difficult one, she slept for two days straight as her body went through the changes needed to be a senshi and become Venusian. She remembered waking up on that third day, feeling as if a freight train had hit her; she had made it to the bathroom before the image in the mirror made her scream in surprise: she was no longer human. In the days that followed she re-trained herself on using vanity spells to change her appearance, to make her once more look like Aino Minako, normal human teen.

It wasn't too long after that when Artemis found her. Within moments of their meeting, she could see that her confidant and friend on the Moon did not remember anything but a watered down history of his time in the Lunar Kingdom, filled with holes and misinformation, including his enthusiastic proclamation that *she* was the kingdom's long lost princess.

So she bore the burden of her memories alone, fighting crime as Sailor V and attempting to train her senshi through a game console in an arcade in the middle of the Juuban district of Tokyo [that one didn't work out too well.] She became withdrawn from the outside world, from her mother (though she never cared much for Minako, anyway) and from her friends at school. It made it easier when the time came for her to resume her role as leader of the senshi and she told them that she was accepted as a foreign exchange student at a school in Tokyo. Her mother had only asked how much it was going to cost her, her friends wished her luck, but said nothing more was on the subject by either parties.

And so she arrived in Juuban with little fanfare and joined the senshi in their fight against Beryl. It was hard the first few days, as she reaquainted herself with her senshi, she had to constantly be on guard about what she said and did, especially around Sailormoon. Both she and Tuxedo Kamen were wary to accept her as the princess, and while neither never publicly called her out on it, Tuxedo Kamen didn't waste anytime cornering her privately one night to find out her true identity.

*Flashback*

"It's getting late, Artemis." Aino Minako stated, straining to read her watch in the pale light of the nearby streetlamp. "We should hurry if we want to make it home before midnight."

The white tomcat sitting on her shoulder nodded in agreement, "We've had a long day today, Princess."

Minako rolled her eyes, *I thought I had finally rid him of that habit!* She thought as they continued their trek towards her apartment, "I wish you would not call me that. I'm not a princess right now."

"You are always a princess," Artemis disagreed. "No matter what form you are in."

*Well, I can't disagree with him on that score,* Mina thought to herself, though she still told Artemis to drop the formalities.

They had just crossed onto her street when she turned and stared out into the darkness behind her. After a moment let out a resigning sigh. *He's not going to leave me alone, is he?*

"Artemis, why don't you go on ahead," She suggested as she put the feline on the ground. "I'll see you at home."

"What is it?" Asked Artemis, straining to see what she did (he was a cat for Selene's sake, they are supposed to have great nightvision!) "Not a Youma?"

"No," Minako reassured him with a smile, "I'll be fine."

Artemis looked doubtful, "No, I should stay with you."

"Go." She ordered in a tone that brooked no argument, then softening she added: "truly, no harm will befall me."

Heaving a sigh of his own, he relented. "Fine. I'll go, but if you're not home in fifteen minutes, I'm calling your senshi."

Minako nodded in assent. "Agreed."

With that promise in mind, Artemis reluctantly continued on his way, grumbling of wayward charges.

"It is safe to come out, now." She called into the shadows as soon as she was sure the Lunarian cat was out of earshot: "Tuxedo Kamen."

A figure dislodged itself from the shadows, jumping from a nearby ledge to step into the moonlight. "How did you know it was me?"

A smirk tugged at the corner of Mina's lips, *I could sense your energy following us since the moment we left the battle. Oh Prince of Terra, if you could see yourself now.* "I have my ways."

"Is it a power from being the Moon Princess you claim to be?"

"As I recall, *I* never claimed to be her." She returned, easily avoiding the first part of his question.

Tuxedo Kamen started, then thought better of it. *She* had never called herself by that title, it was the others who did: Mercury, Mars, Jupiter, the cats-- everyone--but Sailormoon. "But you never denied it, either."

"Now that would be pointless, would it not?" came her mysterious reply.

A flash of confusion, so brief one might have missed it if one blinked. *Serenity always said that Prince Endymion was adept at riddles.* A ghost of a smile appeared as she remembered Serenity coming to her and the other Senshi for new ones to challange her prince's wit.

"You're protecting her." Tuxedo Kamen stated, pulling her out of her reverie. "Why?"

"For love, for duty," she answered. "For the same reasons you, my sister senshi and I gladly risk our lives every day for her: she brought us all together, like moths to her flame, and without her we are lost."

This time he made no effort to mask the confusion on his face. "I know her?"

"What is the saying: 'She's right under your nose.'" And she watched as his face became pensive, his mind working through this new information.

Her watched beeped the hour, reminding her of her promise; in a few moments Artemis would be sending out the search party for her. She glanced up to tell him so, but found herself once more alone.

***

Maybe she should have told the prince that *she* was Serenity, not that Endymion would have believed it anyway: that Endymion knew that Venus wasn't Serenity immediately was a sign of the strength of their bond, their love. If she *had* told him that she was Serenity, and on the very unlikely chance he had believed her, he still would have taken Kunzite's attack for Sailormoon, Sailormoon still would have become Serenity, Kunzite still would have taken Endymion to the Dark Kingdom and they still would be in the predicament that they were now in. So the question was moot, anyway.

Once Tuxedo Kamen knew of Serenity's true identity, he backed off from the senshi in both of their forms. Venus surmised that he was trying to protect Usagi from exposure, no matter how much it killed the girl, and Venus did nothing to try and help the couple along, even though her Venusian blood screamed at her to do so. On some level Chiba Mamoru's prescence might have hastened Usagi's transformation, and Venus was loathe to take away even one day of the normal Terran life being Usagi gave her princess. On Earth, Usagi had more freedom to be the carefree girl she wasn't really able to be on her home planet, where duty and decorum controlled her behavior. Even when the girl was Sailormoon, she still had more freedom: especially when the senshi knew nothing of her true identity, she was able to fight *with* her senshi rather than her senshi fight for her (though each would have laid down her life for Sailormoon,) she was able to make mistakes, to fail, without much consequence, for she always prevailed in the end. On the Moon, mistakes could end in war.

And so she let things play out, and when Kunzite set a trap for them at the Tokyo Tower, she never expected her princess to try and take on the general alone. Nor when the Dark General's deathblow came barreling at Sailormoon, did she expect Tuxedo Kamen to step out in front of it. And as Usagi became Serenity, in the aftermath of that attack, she definitely did not expect Kunzite to steal away with the prince.

It was only a few hours after Prince Endymion's disappearance at Tokyo Tower that Serenity fell into an exhausted sleep that quickly developed into a fever. After a few moments dilerberation on the best course of action (Jupiter and Mercury wanted to take her to the hospital, Rei to the temple) she pulled rank and ordered them to take Serenity to Jupiter's apartment as Jupiter was an emancipated minor and lived alone ensuring some peace. Once there, her senshi demanded an explanation for not taking her to a place where she would receive better care which she answered with a 'because I said so,' though it soon became apparent when Serenity began mumbling in Lunarian and glowing silver that no other option was feasable.

The senshi rotated shifts of looking after their princess and patrolling in between going to school and trying to run interference with Usagi's parents, school and friends on her disappearance (Mercury spearheaded that part.)

In the days to follow Serenity's condition deteriorated further as her fever worsened: she cried out often in her delerium for Endymion, or her mother, both royal and Terran, and as her body tried to get rid of the fever she began to thrash about the bed (she had to be held down to keep her from harming herself) and release energy pulses from the crescent birth mark on her forehead (Makoto about died when she came home from school to see the scorch marks on her walls, ceiling and belongings.) It wasn't long after that that she didn't allow anyone in the apartment unless they were henshined, and even then when only necessary. The other senshi were weak in their Terran forms, with access to only a fraction of the strength and power that they had in the past: strength and power that currrently she only possessed.

Now she stood at Serenity's beside, keeping a primarily lone vigil, watching as emotions from troubled dreams played themselves out across her face. She took hold of one of Serenity's pale, clammy hands, cradling the small hand inbetween her gloved ones, and let the grief that had been building up inside of her out. Quiet sobs racked her frame as she cried for the loss of her cousin, of her cousin's love, and the carefree human life that neither of them possessed any longer. "Please come back to us, soon, Serenity," She whispered as silent tears streamed down her face, "we are all lost without you."

---

Serenity was once again lost in the foggy dreams that had plagued her in past months: dreams where she was lost in a bleak, cold world. Where the fog left one disoriented and confused, with only the voice of her prince calling to her from somewhere in the distance giving her some sense of direction. But there was no voice now, only deafening silence.

"Endymion?" She called into the mist, hoping to hear his beloved voice answer, "Endymion!" This time shouting, her voice reverberating off some unknown mass in the far distance.

Defeated, she fell to her knees, "Oh, Endymion," her voice barely a whisper, "where are you, my love?"

---

"Serenity."

Kunzite's head snapped in the direction of his prince, still and unmoving, as he head been for the past few days. Strange, he could have sworn he heard something.

---

"Serenity," his voice came to her on the wind, a gentle caress in the harsh cold, and her head leaned involuntarily towards the sound as if it would bring her closer to him.

"Endymion?" She whispered back, not daring to speak any louder for fear that it might drown out his voice. "Serenity," his call resounded, but his the sound was quieter, more distant, weaker. She was losing him again.

"No!" She called to him, "don't go! Don't leave me again, Endy!" Tears began coursing their way down her cheeks, and she reached out with every ounce of power she had towards him: "ENDYMION"

Venus felt the pull of energy from the moon into its daughter, the sensation quickly woke her from where she had fallen asleep at her cousin's side. Her eyes flew open to meet the pupiless silver of her cousin's eyes only a heartbeat before she was thrown to the other side of the room from the force of the power's release from Serenity. From her position on the floor Venus watched as her princess cried out for her prince, the sound heartwrenching and desperate, the latter's body arched in response to the rapid influx of power, pulling her off the tiny bed.

*Senshi I need you, now!* Venus called out telepathically, not bothering to use her communicator, as her mind frantically worked through solutions: in the past she had thrown up a spell in order to shield the princess' power from leaving the room, but it was too late for that, and with the force of Serenity's power there was no guarentee that it would hold. She couldn't approach Serenity, either, as the Lunarian's power levels were too high for either to be safe.

And then it was over.

Serenity's body collapsed back onto the bed with enough force that she bounced off of it, and Venus had to dive in order to save her from hitting her head on the floor. As Venus checked the other girl over carefully for any obvious damage, one question ran through her mind: what in all the seven hells just happened?

---

Kunzite felt the Lunarian princess' power and immediately blinked into his prince's chamber, seeing that the prince was unharmed and still unconcious, he moved to do some damage control with Queen Beryl, when she appeared at his side.

"Wake him," she ordered, her tone broking no room for argument.

Kunzite pretended not to understand, "but my queen--"

"Now, Kunzite!"

Kunzite squared his shoulders and drew himself up to his full height, "no, I am no longer yours to command. I am General Kunzite, head of Prince Endymion's guard. I only answer to him."

"WHAT!" Beryl screamed, her face contorted in rage, and suddenly Kunzite was on his knees, his mouth open in a silent scream as Beryl's dark magic invaded his body.

"You dare defy me?" She demanded as her eyes flashed with rage. "It was *I* who gave you power, *I*, who gave you meaning. It is *I* whom you serve."

"I. Serve. Endymion." Kunzite ground out against the pain that lanced through him as he fought her attack.

"Then you will di--Ah!" She cried out sharply as a red rose imbedded itself in her hand and her grasp on Kunzite released. Kunzite collapsed to the floor with a thud and it was from this position that he watched as Endymion stepped out of the shadows. His prince was adorned in his battle armour, and his normally blue eyes were now golden with power.

"It cannot be!" The witch hissed, disbelief written all over her features; then she straightened and, what Kunzite thought was her idea of a smile, spread on her lips as she pulled the rose from her hand and green blood began to fall to the floor. "My dear Endymion," her oily voice cooed, "always a pleasure."

"Let her go, Metallia." Endymion ordered as he advanced on Beryl, drawing his sword in the process. "She is no more use to you."

Beryl's smile quickly faded into a sneer, and her crystal sceptre flared with power. "I am my own master, Prince of Terra." She declared as she flung her sceptre at the prince, who easily waved it aside and left it to shatter to pieces as he continued towards her. With a cry, dark energy lept forth from Beryl's claw-like hands as she declared: "I will not be defeated that easily!"

Endymion brought his sword up to deflect the energy until he was close enough to rest it against her neck. "You can either release her, or die with her, Metallia." His was voice deceptively calm, as he pushed the blade further against her skin. "It makes little matter to me."

Beryl's face darkened and her features distorted, "you know her death won't harm me!" Beryl, or rather, Metallia hissed.

"But it *will* weaken you," He countered, adding pressure to the blade, drawing further blood, "it's your choice."

Beryl's eyes narrowed, "this is not over." Metallia promised and with that Beryl's feature's lightened and her eyes cleared. "My Lord Endy-" Beryl's head was clean off her shoulders before she knew it. And as her body fell to the floor, Endymion caught her head and kneeling gently replaced it on her shoulders. "Gaia grant this traveler access to Elysium's fields," he said reverently as he drew the symbol of Terra on Beryl's head, "she has long been denied her rest." And as he rose Beryl's corpse caught a light quickly burned to ash.

"All that was to save her soul?" Kunzite asked in wonderment as he tried to stand.

Endymion reared on him, and Kunzite once more found himself on his knees from the force of Endymion's power.

"Would you like me to perform the same service for you, General?" He demanded, his sword-tip forcing Kunzite's head up.

Kunzite squared his jaw and looked up at his prince, "if you feel it is necessary, my liege."

Endymion seemed to consider his words for a second, then Kunzite felt the kiss of the prince's sword and the warmth of his blood run down his neck. Endymion seemed satisfied and offered Kunzite a hand, which was gratefully accepted.

"Serenity waits for us," Endymion stated once Kunzite was on his feet, and Kunzite was amazed to see his prince's blue eyes return. "Come," and with that he blinked out of sight.

Kunzite placed his fingers to the warmth on his neck and when he brought them away he found himself looking at crimson blood. He laughed, a short, joyful bark in relief and followed his prince out of the dark.

---

The other senshi had only just reached the apartment when Serenity's eyes flew open, and the princess' face bloomed with joy. "Endymion," she breathed and blinked out of the room.

"Princess!" Her senshi cried after her, startled at her disappearance, let alone her awakening.

Venus rolled her eyes after her cousin, "this is just like her!" Turning to the senshi she ordered: "stay here and keep your comms open!" And then she, too, was gone leaving three very bewildered sensh in her wake.

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Confused? I hope not. Read and Review. 


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